Language Degree to Full-Time Professional Translator, How?

Get on the right path to becoming a full-time freelance translator by thinking about qualifications, specialisation and work experience.

To become a full-time professional translator, a language degree is a good starting point. In this post, I share a possible path from graduating with a degree in modern languages, to becoming a freelance translator. It’ll point you in the right direction on getting experience, and thinking about specialisation and further qualifications.

Perhaps you recognise yourself in this email:

“I’m in the final term of my undergraduate degree in Hispanic Studies. I’ve developed a keen interest in translation, but I just don’t know how to move forward to become a full-time professional translator. I would love to do an MA in Translation Studies but I don’t know how I’d be able to fund it. Do you think it’s a bad idea to go for the DipTrans straight out of undergraduate studies?”

If you don’t have any translation work experience, it’s difficult to be sure that you’re choosing the right post-graduate course. Not only one you’ll like, but one that will help you get profitable work in the long term. If you step out of academia and get some perspective on the translation workplace, you’ll see things from a new angle. You may find that things you thought to be true, aren’t.

Work experience as part of the path to becoming a successful full-time professional translator

If you want to become a full-time professional translator, I think it’s a bad idea to do qualifications directly after completing an undergraduate degree. I’d say it’s better to get work experience first.

Translation work experience will help you start to develop the professional translation skills needed to pass a challenging exam like the DipTrans. Or if it’s the MA that attracts you, then you can make sure you’re clear about where you want to specialise professionally. There are translation master’s degrees available with different specialisations. Or you may end up deciding to combine the DipTrans with a degree in a different area.

The translation profession is changing rapidly and the most successful translators specialise. What seems like a good MA today, may not be the most useful one tomorrow.

Get a job in a foreign country

Most graduates fresh out of university need to further develop their source- and target- language knowledge, and source-culture awareness, to be competent translators. If you’re in this category, consider looking for an option that will let you expand your skills for a few years.

“Try to connect with working translators, to learn as much as possible about the industry.”

After my BA, I taught English in Seville for about 3 years before I thought about becoming a professional translator. This amazing experience did wonders for my knowledge of the Spanish and English languages. Also, by living and working in Spain, I really started to engage with and understand Spanish culture.

I know other full-time professional translators who did something similar. Some worked in other areas, but they all spent years in residence in the source-language country before becoming translators. Most of them weren’t qualified as translators when they started out freelancing. They gathered translation experience before or while qualifying.

From history degree to EU interpreter

My flatmate and colleague in Seville went on to spend two years in Germany. Then, she moved to Paris to qualify as an interpreter. After a 5-year language-learning spree, followed by a two-year post-graduate course in Paris, she started working as an EU interpreter. She interprets out of French, Spanish and German into English, and lately learned Swedish.

My friend is an excellent example of how post-graduate qualifications can help mould a language professional once they’ve gathered practical skills. She needed real-life language knowledge and experiences before she was ready to qualify as an interpreter. It’s clear that she wouldn’t have been ready to qualify as an interpreter straight after her BA.

Specialisation for full-time professional translators

If you have a language degree, when you get into translation you’ll meet a problem: you don’t have a specialisation. Working in a specialist field is the way for translators to differentiate themselves and make a decent living.

After a few years “out”, you might feel ready to consider a post-graduate qualification in another field that you could combine with translation. For instance, you could combine the DipTrans, which proves your translation ability, with a master’s degree in another area, which proves your specialisation.

I’m a commercial translator. I did the DipTrans and an MA in Translation Studies. Then, I realised that I didn’t have sufficient specialisation to get the highest-paying work. So, I did a second MA, in legal translation. It was that legal specialisation that made the difference for me. If I could go back, I’d combine the DipTrans with the MA in Legal Translation, and do another qualification in a different field.

In conclusion . . .

I’d advise the person who sent me that email to get out of academia for a bit and go abroad. They could broaden their knowledge by living as a member of the source-language community and working in different jobs. I’d tell them to try to connect with working translators, to learn as much as possible about the industry. They should think hard about where they’d be wise to specialise. And then decide which post-graduate qualification is best for them and their career goals.

Check out my DipTrans preparation course. It’s for Spanish-to-English translators preparing to sit the Diploma in Translation exam. But it’s also great if you want to develop your translation skills with a view to becoming a full-time professional translator. Email me for your free level test.

Thanks for reading and commenting. Getting as much translation experience as you can is an important way to consolidate your skills and improve your CV. Volunteering is a great way to do this as it has the advantage of helping people as well.